Don’t bet on punters, says Bennelong candidate

The Liberal candidate in one of the federal election’s tightest races has dismissed the reliability of online gambling sites as indicators of the election outcome as the sites raise the prospect of a hung parliament.

Bennelong candidate John Alexander has emerged as the favourite on several sites to unseat Labor MP
Maxine McKew
in the northern Sydney seat, but Labor put on a show of force in the area on Friday morning by despatching Prime Minister
Julia Gillard
to shore up support.

The Prime Minister visited the Top Ryde shopping centre to find that the Liberal campaigners were already there, with Mr Alexander mingling with voters ahead of Ms Gillard’s appearance.

The race in Bennelong is one of the closest in the campaign and Centrebet on Friday had Mr Alexander well in front.

But the Liberal candidate said he knew of times when the odds on the Bennelong outcome had shifted as a result of bets worth as little as $250, which he said showed that the wagers could not be relied upon as signals of the election outcome.

Ms Gillard and Ms McKew spoke to an audience that had assembled to mark the opening of renovations to the shopping centre.

The shopping centre visit was a rarity for the Labor campaign, a fact that Ms Gillard acknowledged by telling the shopping centre audience that the media group travelling with her had seen nothing like it during the past five weeks.

Repeating a theme from her campaign, Ms Gillard told the audience that the shopping centre owner “chose jobs" when he decided to redevelop the centre despite the global financial crisis.

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Ms Gillard received a warm welcome from shoppers except for one man who called her a “backstabber" for replacing former prime minister Kevin Rudd.

Speaking before the event, Mr Alexander said he believed the outcome in Bennelong was hard to predict but that voters were concerned about Labor’s economic mismanagement.

Another at the event, local resident Tom Geroulas, said he hoped the vote went against Ms McKew because he opposed the use of federal funding to build social housing projects that were inappropriate in parts of the area.

“If justice is done, it’ll go against her," Mr Geroulas, who led a residents group opposing the developments. Labor supporters have suggested the residents group is a front for the Liberal Party but Mr Geroulas said he had no political leanings and was not a member of the Liberal Party or the National Party.

Centrebet said on Friday morning that it was paying $1.48 for a $1 bet on Mr Alexander winning the seat.